Box staying machine



May 26, 1953 M. v. SILBY BOX STAYING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed D60. 5, 1947 IN VEN TOR.

il MARTIN V. SILBY m O A M. V. SILBY BOX STAYING MACHINE May 26, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed D60. 5, 1947 JNVENTOR. MARTIN V. SILBY Attornays Patented May 26, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BOX STAYING MACHINE Martin V. Silby, New York, N. Y.

Application December 5, 1947, Serial No. 789,879

3 Claims. 1.

The invention relates to box staying .machinery, and, in particular, to improvements in a box staying machine of the type exemplified by the disclosure in my prior U. S. Patent No. 1,988,814, issued January 22, 1935.

The general object of the invention is to provide an improved box staying machine of the type referred to above, i. e., a box staying machine adapted to affix stays, such as adhesivecoated paper binders, to the side-wall corners of box shells having the external shape of truncated pyramids and the internal shape of parallelopipeds.

A special object is to provide such a machine adapted to affix stays to the side-wall corners of such box shells smoothly and properly positioned without deforming the shell blank during the operation of impressing the stay against and around the side-wall corner.

Another object is to provide new and practical means whereby in such a machine the staying material, which has previously been folded so as to have a V-shaped cross-section, is delivered to the means for affixing the same to the side-wall corners of such box shells in accurate alignment so that the arris of the folded staying material is properly registered with the arris formed at the side-wall corner of the shell at the moment the stay is afiixed.

Another object is to provide new and practical means whereby in such a machine the shell blank is accurately formed prior to and held during the affixing of the stay in the exact geometric shape desired in the finished box corner; and a,

further object is to provide an improved anvil to support the inside of the shell corner at the time the stay is impressed on the outside thereof, such anvil being specially designed to prevent deformation of the material (e. g., cardboard) of the box shell due to pressure applied in affixing the stay.

These and other objects will be more fully understood from the following description and from the drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a box staying machine of the type described embodying the present invention, and showing in dotted lines a box shell supported in position for a stay-affixing operation upon one corner thereof.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a flat blank for a box shell which is to have the shape externally of a truncated pyramid and internally of a right parallelopiped.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the complete box shell, the four sloping corners of the sloping outer side-walls thereof having stays affixed.

Fig. 4 shows; in two objects connected by an index a typical section, or segment, of folded staying material. The upper object shows the segment in plan, the lower object shows the segment in end view.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the inside of a side-wall corner of the completed shell, or of the shell with the outer and inner side-walls in finished position relative to each other. The figure is partly in section. Notice that no stay is provided for the corner of the two inside (vertical) sidewalls shown.

Fig. 6 is another perspective view from the angle of view of Fig. 5 of the box shell, showing the inner side-wall-forming parts of the shell blank folded back against the outer side-wallforming parts, indicating the relative positions of the side-wall-forming parts at and near the corner of the shell during the operation of amxing a stay on the outside thereof. Notice that those parts of the blank which have been folded into the shell and against the outside side-walls do not meet at the box corner. The figure is partly in section.

Fig. '7 is a perspective view of a common form of box utilizing the shell of Fig. 3 as its base.

Fig. 8 is the section 8-8 of Fig. 3. Fig. 9 is the section 9-9 of Fig. 1. Fig. 10 is the section HJ-l 0 of Fig. 9. Fig. 11 is a perspective view of an element employed in the present invention to control align-' ment of, and registration of, the staying material as it is delivered to be affixed to the corner of the box shell. A strip of staying material is shown in dotted lines.

Fig. 12 is the section l2l 2 of Fig. 9.

With particular reference now to Fig. 1, a general structure is shown which is similar to the box staying machine illustrated in the patent cited above, and in which the head frame of the machine is designated II, a main drive shaft H, which is journaled in said head frame, and a pulley [3, the latter being mounted upon shaft I2.

At the front of the machine is fitted in a vertical guide l4 a reciprocating slide I5 having near its lower end a stud I6 which is linked by a connecting-rod I! to a wrist-pin IS on the shaft [2, by means of which the shaft is arranged to effect reciprocation of a die I!) mounted on the lower end of slide l5.

A stationary die 20 is mounted upon the bed of the machine beneath the die [9, and the two cooperate to form a shear to cut segments from the advanced end of a folded strip of staying material 2| (see Fig. 1, Where a considerable length of material is visible; beyond the erased end of the strip, to the right, in the figure, is a schematic cross-sectional index illustrating the fold of the strip as it is advanced through the machine; see, also, Fig. 9, showing a length of the strip from above, and Figs. 11 and 12).

The die l9 not only serves as the movable member of a shear for the purpose of cutting off segments of th advanced staying material, but as the hammer member for the purpose of impressing the severed segment of staying material upon and around the side-wall corner of the box shell when the latter is internally supported by an anvil, described below.

As the staying material is delivered to the dies and anvil already folded along the center line of the supply strip, and as cut off segments of the material are necessarily in the shape of a chevron (cf. Fig. 4; also, Figs. 1 and 9), the cutting edges22 and 23 of dies l9 and 20, respectively, are V-shaped. With respect to the shear, proper, the cutting edge 22 of die i9 is male, and the cutting edge 23 of die 25 is female. The planes of the two cutting edges, 22 and 23, are, of course, slanting to accord with the planes of the folded halves of the advanced strip of staying material so that cut off segments are sheared in such manner that the severed edges thereof will be parallel to the top and bottom of the box shell.

The top of die 25, over which the strip of staying material is intermittently advanced, as will be described subsequently, is ridge-shaped (cf. Fig. 12). The ridge is designated 24'. The bottom of die [9 is provided with a valley 25', corresponding to the shape of the ridge 24; this valley, of course, conforms to the shape of the upper surface of the cut off segment of staying material during an aflixing operation, which immediately follows the shearing operation. Fig. 12 most clearly illustrates the shapes of the dies and when viewed in frontal elevation. Fig. 12 may be taken as illustrative of' the relative positions of the dies and of the forward end of the strip of staying material just prior to a shearing and afiixing operation.

The staying material, which may be of paper or other suitable tape, is folded by any convenient means before being fed into the machine. See the schematic cross-section indexed i in Fig. 1. The index applies to a guide-roller couple, one of the rollers thereof dipping into a tank of water or adhesive, and both rollers conforming peripherally to the shape of the folded strip of staying material.

Any suitable step-by-step mechanism may be utilized to feed the strip of staying material intermittently to the dies and anvil. A convenient structure is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 9, wherein a cross-head 2? slides in guides 28' and is provided with a pair of jaws 29 and 311 of which the former is fixed upon the cross-head and the latter, is mounted upon one arm of a bellcrank 3|, the other arm of which is connected by a link 32 to a pitman 33 journaled upon a pin 34 at the top, of the frame II. A spring 35 tends to draw the. pitman 33 rearwardly, and, with it, the cross-head 2'! and the jaws 29 and 30, at the same time causing the upper jaw 30 to rccede from gripping engagement with the intervening strip of staying material, in obvious fashion, due to the lag of the head 21 in frictional engagement with the slide 28 and the auxiliary action of a spring 36 mounted on the bellcrank and on a bracket 31. Forward feeding movement of the pitman 33 and the strip of staying material 2| is effected by action of a face cam 38 mounted to rotate with shaft l2 and bearing against a roller 38 upon pitman 33, the jaw 35 being clamped down upon the jaw 29 and the intervening strip of staying material when the link 32 is pushed forward by the pitman.

In order to prevent deformation of the strip of staying material during a feeding operation the under jaw 29 may be provided with an upper surface in the shape of a ridge to conform to the under surface of the strip; also, two fixed, horizontally disposed rods 50 and 4| (see particularly Fig. 9), beneath which the strip of staying material is fed, and which resist bending moments applied to the strip, serve further to prevent deformation of the strip.

With a guide 42 provided in a bracket 43 mounted forward of the dies I9 and 20 is an anvil M arranged to be reciprocated by means of a pitman ili which is pivotally connected to the anvil at 48 and to a rock-shaft 41 carried in a bracket 48 upon the head frame ll. Springs) 69, tend to draw the anvil toward the dies l9 and 2G and to carry the pitman 55 in the same direction; upon the pitman 45, however; is a roller 55' engaging a cam 5| fixed to the slide [5, the cam being so formed as to hold the pitman and anvil away from the dies [9 and 20 in the position shown in Fig. 1 when the slide I5 is elevated, and to permit the springs 49, 49 to carry the anvil toward the dies when the slide is lowered.

Beneath the die 20 and extending forwardly and downwardly therefrom is a gauge plate 52, arranged to receive the unstayed corner'of a box shell of the shape described. When the handfolded, unstayed shell blank is introduced into the gauge plate 52 its shape is but approximate to that desired in the finished box, due to the resilience of the unstayed, fo lded side-Wallforming parts of the blank. For this reason the gauge plate 52 is provided with two flanges 53, 53, arranged at each to the other'on opposite sides of the plate, and each being bent with respect to the plate at an angle conforming to the angle desired between the bottom and sloping outer side-walls of the finished box; also,

. as best shown in Fig. 9, the flanges 53,. 53, do

not continue along the sides of the plate to meet at an arris, but are separated to permit frontal access to the die 20. When the roughly formed shell is introduced into the gauge comprising the plate 52 and the flanges 53, 53, the side-wallforming parts of the shell blank are forced to assume the relative positions desired in the finished box, and are held in such positions during the operation of aflixing the stay. Those edges of the two flanges 53, 53, bordering the opening giving access to die 20 are designated. 54, 54. (See Fig. 9.)

The operation of the machine is best understood from a discussion of the construction ofthe box shell itself. As has been mentioned above, the finished box is desired to have the external shape of a truncated pyramid and-the internal shape of a right parallelepiped. The blank 55 shown in Fig. 2 is cut from a piece of flat material, such as cardboard, in a cruciform shape. The cutting and scoring (for fold-lines) of the shell blank is usually a machine operation, but does not form part of the present invention.

The blank of the shell is usually preformed byhand and, in a rough approximationv of the final desired shape, the incomplete shell is introduced into the machine of the'present invention for the purpose of staying the outer sidewall corners in the actual shape desired in the complete box. To form the shell the side-wall-forming parts of the cruciform blank are each twice folded: each is initially folded on a line 56, of which there are'four, forming the periphery of the resulting bottom of the shell; next, each is folded on a line 5i, of which there are also four, forming the top edges of the finished shell. The portions 58, 58, 58, 58, of the four side-wall-forming parts of the shell blank 55 become, in the finished shell, the four outer sloping side-walls of the article, and the portions 59, 59, 59, 59, 0f the four side-wall-forming parts of the shell blank 55 become, in the finished shell, the four reinforcing vertical inner side-walls of the article. see Fig. 2; also, Figs. 3 and 8. In Figs. 3 and 7 the stays affixed to the completed shell are designated S; the stay of Fig. 4 is also designated 5.

In Fig. 5, a perspective view looking toward the inside corner of a properly folded shell, shows that the edges of the inner side-walls 59, 59, actually meet in the corner of the shell. Of course, as seen in Fig. 8, these side-walls are vertical. If, however, the side-wall-forming portions 59, 59, are folded back against the outer sloping side-wall-forming portions 58, 58, as in Fig. 6, portions 59, 59, do not meet in the corner of the shell, and for this reason the actual corner of the shell is formed only by portions 58, 59. As the portions 59, 59, are necessarily folded back against the portions 58, 58, in the operation of affixing a stay wherein, as in the present machine, an anvil is inserted into the corner of the shell to support the corner against the hammeraction of die 19, the anvil 44 is provided with a front edge tapered at 60, 60, and at 6| (on the underside), as shown in Figs. 9 and l, to conform to the general shape of the inside of the corner of the shell; the front end of the anvil is also beveled on top away from a ridge line 62 (see Fig. 9), also to conform to the angle of the corner of the box shell; and at the extreme end of the anvil on the top thereof is provided a diamond-shaped protuberance 63, specifically designed to enter into the gap left at the corner of the box shell when the side-wall-forming parts 59, 59, are folded back against the portions 58, 58, upon the entry of the anvil into the shell while the latter is braced by the gauge plate 52 and its flanges 53, 53.

Fixed to the bed of the machine behind the dies [9 and 20 and before the step-by-step feeding mechanism previously described, is a formed plate member 64, shown by itself in Fig. 11 (wherein the strip of staying material, designated 2|, is indicated in dotted lines), said member being fixed to the bed by a screw at 65, and being bifurcated at 66, one part 6'! lying flat on the bed and having a vertically bent lip 68 extending upward as a centering gauge over which the advancing strip of staying material slides, the lip maintaining the advancing strip in alignment by engaging the inside of the fold of said strip; and the other part 99 being bent upward and over the advancing strip to prevent the latter from rising materially above the lip 69.

The operation of the machine is obvious. The operator having introduced the corner of a preformed shell into the gauge plate and having set the machine in operation, the strip of staying material is advanced a predetermined distance over the die 20 according to the set of face cam 38; simultaneouslythe slide 15 descends, carrying with it the die l9 and the cam 5|; descent of cam 5| permits the pitman 45 to move rearwardly; springs 49, 49, carry'the anvil 44 into the corner of the'shell; the descent of die [9 operates to sever from the strip of staying material a segment of predetermined length and to carry the segment downward, in alignment and proper register, against the outer corner of theshell, to which the stay adheres. The protuberance 63 occupying the gap between the edges of the parted portions 59, 59, no deformation of the otherwise unsupported edges of the portions 59, 58, occurs. When the slide l5 withdraws, as a result of the continuing cyclic operation of the drive shaft [2, the cam 5l'forces the pitman 45, and, consequently, the anvil 44, back into the position shown in Fig. 1. Then the machine is ready for a next operation.

The word island used in the claims refers to protuberance 63 mentioned above (see the drawing).

I claim:

1. In a machine for attaching stays to the corners of box shells which are formed by twice folding the four arms of a cruciform blank upon themselves so that the outer walls of the shell are sloping and the inner walls thereof are substantially vertical, a frame; a reciprocating plunger having a die at one end thereof, a reciprocating anvil, and a stationary die, said plunger, anvil, and lastnamed die being mounted on said frame, and said anvil having a head with a longitudinal ridge and surfaces slanting downwardly on both sides of said ridge, said surfaces being abruptly stepped upwardly at the front of said head whereby a longitudinally ridged island is provided adjacent the front end of said anvil; stay-cutting means, comprising the firstand secondnamed dies; stay-attaching means, comprising the firstnamed die and said anvil; and gages for holding unstayed folded parts of a box shell blank in predetermined relative positions during the attaching of a stay to said parts.

2. In a machine for attaching stays to the corners of box shells which are formed by twice folding the four arms of a cruciform blank upon themselves so that the outer walls of the shell are sloping and the inner walls thereof are substantially vertical, a frame; a reciprocating plunger mounted on said frame and having a die at one end thereof, said die having a valley therein conforming to the desired shape of a corner of the shell to be stayed; a reciprocating anvil mounted on said frame, said anvil having a head with a longitudinal ridge and surfaces slanting downwardly on both sides of said ridge, said surfaces being abruptly stepped upwardly at the front of said head whereby a longitudinally ridged island is provided adjacent the front end of said anvil; a stationary die mounted on said frame and having cutting edges meeting at an angle; stay-cutting means, comprising the firstand secondnamed dies; stay-attaching means, comprising the firstnamed die, the valley thereof, the anvil, and the head thereof; and gages for holding unstayed folded parts of a box shell blank in predetermined relative positions during the attaching of a stay to said parts.

3. In a machine for attaching stays to the corners of box shells which are formed by twice folding the four arms of a cruciform blank upon themselves so that the outer walls of the shell are sloping and the inner walls thereof are sub- 7 stamiany normal to the base 0f the shell, mi mm tor suppnrting' a corner of said shell-during the attaching of a'stay thereto, said anvil haw mg a lyqad with a longitudinal ridge and suffaces' slanting'downwam-ly on b'dt-h sides of said ridge, said surfac'e's being abruptly stepped upwardly at the mm of said head wherebya'longitudmlly ringed island is'larovidefiadj-acent 'the'front ofsizi'danvii. V

VZBILBY.

References Cited in the me of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number 

